Eminem’s Former Bodyguard Speaks

Aug. 31, 2000 — -- There’s a candy-covered chocolate, M&M, that melts in your mouth.

And then there’s a bad-boy rapper, Eminem, who melts in the hands of his manager — if you believe his ex-bodyguard.

Byron “Big Naz” Williams says that behind Eminem’s violent, misogynistic lyrics stands a miserable, drug-addled young man, a mere “paper gangsta,” who is manipulated by his manager and handlers who keep him “high and intoxicated.”

24-Hour-a-Day Baby Sitter

Williams made his forthcoming, self-published book, Shady Bizzness, available to The Wolf Files. In it, he describes himself as a “24-hour-a-day baby sitter” for the 26-year-old white rapper who takes drug-abusing, woman-hating, gay-bashing music to new extremes.

Williams, who guarded Eminem from May to December 1999, claims that behind the tough-guy image, the rap star is losing control of his life, even as he reaches new heights.

Eminem’s latest release, The Marshall Mathers LP, is the fastest-selling rap album in history, with more than 1.7 million purchased in its first week. It’s been at the top of the charts since May, and in February he won Grammy awards for best rap album and best solo performance.

Perhaps no other rap artist has risen to such fame with songs as graphic and vulgar as “Kill You,” a psychotic rant about raping his mother as revenge for a lousy childhood.

Eminem’s defense: He says he is not advising people how to live. He is merely purging his psyche, which he often does using an alter ego known as “Slim Shady.”

In “Role Model, “ he sings:

“Now follow me and do exactly what you see, Don’tcha wanna grow up to be just like me? I slap women and eat ’shrooms then OD,Don’tcha wanna grow up to be just like me?”

That may sound a bit like a warning to his audience not to take him literally. But these days, Eminem’s life increasingly resembles the violence in his music. In June, he was accused of pulling a gun on a man who kissed his wife at a bar outside Detroit. Soon after, he was accused of pulling a gun on a person connected with the rap group Insane Clown Posse.

Eminem, now out on bail, faces charges of carrying a concealed weapon and assault with a deadly weapon in those incidents.

“The guy just doesn’t know how to deal with reality,” says Williams. “When I was around, it was a lot of drugs, and he just wasn’t making choices for himself.”

Disgruntled Employee? If Williams, 30, sounds like a disgruntled ex-employee, that’s because he is. He claims Eminem still owes him $6,000. The singer’s manager, Paul Rosenberg, has denied that charge in the press. Rosenberg failed to return three calls to respond to comments in Williams’ book.

“It started out as a revenge thing,” Williams admits. In December, he says he confronted the rapper at his mother-in-law’s home. The situation nearly got violent, and authorities ordered him to keep away.

“But now I just want to set the record straight and let people know what that life is like,” Williams says. “I’ve moved on. I think my book is a tale of warning for anyone who wants to live the life.”

Williams said when he guarded the rapper, the pressures of instant success and a failing marriage were getting to him.

“I never liked him using the drugs, because I didn’t want the responsibility of notifying the next of kin if he OD’d,” Williams writes.

“Slim had all the symptoms of an abuser. It’s no secret. I can recall one day during the Warped Tour where he took 14 different drugs. It started with ecstasy, then liquor, Vicodin, Valium, shrooms, marijuana, Tylenol 3, Whippets, and a host of other over-the-counter drugs.

“He was scared to go to sleep that night. Then there were times when he would be selective and claim he was cutting back. ‘Today I’m only doing ecstacy!’ Slim would say. That would last 12 hours.”

A Gangsta’s Hell

As Eminem climbed the charts last year, Williams says he was surrounded by fans fawning over him, offering drugs and sex. “One of my jobs was to keep Polaroids of all the ladies who were coming backstage, taking off their clothes and wanting to have sex with him,” Williams says.

“We would have to use those in case there was a rape trial.”

But this was hardly a gangsta’s paradise. “Some people think that money is the key to happiness, but you can have all the money in the world and still be miserable,” William writes. “Look at Slim — he has money, and he is the most miserable man I know.”

In the last few weeks, Eminem has been locked in legal battles with his mother and his wife, both of whom are suing him for $10 million. His mother claims that he has defamed her in his songs. His wife also claims that he defamed her, a few weeks ago, after he filed for divorce. They are fighting for custody of their 5-year-old daughter.

“I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner,” Williams says. “Marshall was abandoned by his father, so he wanted to do right by his kid. But things just got too far gone.”

In songs like “Kim,” Eminem fantasizes about beating and killing his wife:

Don’t you get it bitch, no one can hear you? Now shut the f—k up and get what’s comin’ to youYou were supposed to love me NOW BLEED!

But Williams says it was Kim who was the violent one. “I never saw him get physical with her,” Williams says. “But she was in his face. I saw her once point a finger and push his head backwards. It was obvious things were headed for an end.”

Williams says Rosenberg was happy to see Eminem escape from the pressures of celebrity and family through drugs. The more his client was isolated, the easier he was to control, according to Williams. In a passage directed at Rosenberg, he writes: “I’ve watched you keep Slim high and intoxicated. I guess it makes your job easier. It’s his fault for letting you influence him, but you are supposed to be his manager. You are supposed to take care of him.”

Williams is now out of the security business and has returned to work as an inspector for General Motors. He and his wife are raising 1- and 4-year-old boys, and he records with his own rap groups when he can.

“Lots of people want to make it big,” he says. “But the bigger you are, the bigger your disappointments.”

Buck Wolf is a producer at ABCNEWS.com. The Wolf Files is a weekly feature of the U.S. Section. If you want to receive weekly notice when a new column is published, join the e-mail list.